Discuss whether you agree with this statement. In The Island, Spinalonga is arguably seen as a better developed society than the mainland was.
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The novel heads toward a conclusion as a cure for leprosy is found and the islanders are free to leave. Spinalonga is a place that people dread to go to, but once there, don't necessarily want to leave. Entertainment and industry flourish and people prosper, especially after the arrival of the lepers sent from Athens.
The island is a place of love as well as death. Victoria Hislop presents Spinalonga as a place of far more hope than the reader might initially expect. The link between the island and the mainland, is Girogis, Maria's husband, who took provisions to and from the island. The novel reveals what life was like both on the colony, and for the family members of those who have been sent. Both Alexis's grandmother and great-grandmother had caught leprosy and had been banished to the island of Spinalonga, a colony where all leprosy sufferers were sent.
There follows the telling of Alexis's family history. It is Fontina, the best friend of Alexis's grandmother, Maria, who is able to provide many of the answers to the questions that Sofia had never been willing to answer. The story begins with Alexis Fielding who, at a cross-roads in her own young life, wants to find out about her mother, Sofia's secret past.īefore heading off to Greece, Sofia gives Alexis a letter addressed to an old friend of hers, Fontina. Victoria Hislop's The Island is her debut book, set on a fictional Greek island both pre-war and during the Second World War.
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